German Chocolate Cake Cookies

German Chocolate Cake Cookies – Soft, chewy chocolate cookies with a rich caramel, coconut, pecan frosting – these won’t last long on the cookie plate.

These German Chocolate Cake cookies are a delicious household staple. They make a perfect snack year-round, but are an especially great gift during the holidays! They’re a great addition to any dessert table, but won’t last long as they’re deliciously addictive!

Today I am featuring one of the best cookies you will ever eat, ever! A cookie that will become so addictive you will make them in large quantities and freeze them just to be able to have them for a week or two at a time.

Making one of the traditional cakes, German Chocolate cake into a cookie was one of the best recipes I have ever made. How can you really go wrong with caramel, pecans, and chocolate?

My favorite thing about this recipe is that everything is from scratch. This chocolate cookie is so chewy and moist making it the best platform for the frosting. Bake them today, as they are hands down amazing, delicious, unbelievable,out of this world and the best cookie ever, as quoted by my friends and family that tried them.

What brings me the most joy when making this cookie, is my husband. He loves these; had I made these when we were dating I think we would have gotten married even earlier. He loves them so much it would have created an instant proposal. Instead, I had to wait {but only 9 months, lol}.

Want to make this for someone special add a heart with colored red or pink melting chocolate – I did that for Valentine’s Day.

Don’t forget to pin this recipe for German Chocolate Cake Cookies to your favorite Pinterest board for later.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

German Chocolate Cake Cookies - Soft, chewy chocolate cookies with a rich caramel, coconut, pecan frosting - these won't last long on the cookie plate.

Prep Time15mins

Cook Time20mins

Total Time35mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 36cookies

Calories: 176kcal

Author: Sandra

Ingredients

Chocolate Cookies

1cupsalted buttersoftened

1cuplight brown sugar

1cupgranulated sugar

2teaspoonsvanilla extract

2large eggsbeaten

2 1/4cupsall-purpose flour

1/2cupunsweetened cocoa powder

1teaspoonbaking soda

pinchsalt

Coconut Pecan Frosting

1cupevaporated milk

1cupsugar

3egg yolks

1/2cupbutter

1teaspoonvanilla

1 1/3cupsweetened shredded coconut

1cupchopped pecans

Optional: ¼ cup chocolate candy coatingmelted for drizzle

Instructions

Chocolate Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand mixer, blend the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and blend until combined.

Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, 12 cookies per sheet, and bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

Add evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla to a large pan and place on stovetop over medium heat.

Stir so that it becomes well combined. Continue stirring until thickened, this takes approximately 11-12 minutes. I set my timer for 11 minutes and 30 seconds, this seems to work every time.

Once thickened remove from heat and add coconut and pecans. Beat until thick enough to spread.

Spread frosting over the tops of cooled cookies.

Optional: Drizzle with melted candy coating and let set up. Top with a white chocolate heart. See note.

Note: I melted some pink chocolate candy coating, put it into a Ziplock lunch baggie, snipped off a small corner. Then on some wax paper drew hearts with the chocolate. I let them harden, then gently placed them on top of the cookies. A great decoration for upcoming Valentine’s Day.

A friend shared this recipe on Facebook and it’s all I could think about all day so I bought the ingredients and made them last night! OMG, these are the best cookie in the whole history and future of cookies. I loved them. I took them to work to avoid eating them all myself and I got raves at work. I posted my plate of cookies in Facebook and already got 2 requests to make them for people. Excellent recipe! Thank you!

Please please tell me where I can get the recipe….I saw it on FB also and have been searching in vain for it. I went to Pinterest and the closest I could get was a list of ingredients but no procedure. I’ve been working at this for two days. Hubbys b’day is October 2nd and this is his favorite cake. So this would be a great surprise.

My daughter made these a few weeks ago and her first batch was very flat and chewy also. I suggested (not having seen this site or the intended texture of the cookie) that she add more flour. Since then she has used 2 3/4 cups of flour and they make a delicious thicker, cake-like cookie. With the icing they are delicious.

Oh my! Why wouldn’t you at least try them before throwing away?! To many ingredients and expense! What a waste! If you had tried them, and didn’t care for them, you could at least have given them to a neighbor or senior center! wow!

I use a chocolate cake mix for chocolate cookies all the time..I use white cake mix for white cookies all the time too! Soo much easier nd cheaper really..Then with the german chocolate frosting in can…way easier!

Am in the middle of making these divine looking cookies …… They are coming out looking as flat as a pancake … Maybe flatter. More like a ginger snap. Not soft and chewy. Batch made about 4 doz. Cookies are tasty, but not what I expected. Tried various baking times, but they always flattened out. Might try mixing another batch of dough, but as of now, can’t see the coconut frosting on these ….. Maybe a dip in white chocolate , so all is not lost , but …….. Any thoughts ?

I found that if you use jumbo eggs or a little too much butter, it will make your cookies flat. Also, I’ve put a little baking powder in them and they puff up a little more. Also you can use self rising flour which is a lighter flour and has the baking powder already mixed with it. Worth a try but in my opinion just because they are flat doesn’t meant that they are no good unless you burnt them.

I know I am late to the party. But, these cookies are outrageous. My family started to devour them before I could frost them! I bake a lot of cookies so it is a big deal that these are such a hit. I am also making your recipe for your grandpa’s favorite German chocolate cake for my mom’s birthday,.. Grateful for the recipes!

I made these yesterday and turned out pretty good. I think the “prep time” needs to be adjusted….part of the directions is to stir the frosting for 12 minutes!! Can’t do everything else in 3 minutes!!!

Hi Sandra! German Chocolate is one of my favorite cakes! These look insanely delicious and dangerous for me to be around! 🙂 Add the fact you said they’re the best cookies I will ever eat, I guess I will have to try them!!! 😉 Pinned 🙂

The directions say nothing about when or how to add the chocolate striping I’m seeing on the picture……I see something about white chocolate..which makes NO sense and a pink heart floating..where??This SOUNDED like a great recipe…I was anxious to TRY it..but how about REAL directions that match the pictures?

These chocolate cookies with this delicious frosting sounds so yummy! What a great idea! Thank you so much for stopping by and linking up at Saturday dishes. I pinned it!
Blessings,
Diane Roarkhttp://www.recipesforourdailybread.com

Just a tip to those who want to print out this recipe – use the print button at the top of the post that is located next to the “Save Recipe” button. If you use the one located right above the comments section, it is 9 pages long.

I just made these tonight. O. M. G. These are amazingly delicious. And beautiful to look at. I, of course, did not have quite enough cocoa powder (a little more than 1/4 cup), and no evaporated milk. So I threw in an oz of melted bakers chocolate and used a combination of skim milk and cream and they turned out fine. Okay, better than fine…I don’t know how I’m going to avoid eating them all at once. Thanks so much!!

Wow, I mean wow these cookies were a HUUGE hit at my sister’s wedding last night. I kept getting compliments on how wonderful the cookies tasted! My sister’s husband’s family are Italian and I needed to make a “family” cookie recipe that’s German from our family. I came across your recipe, thanks to Pinterest! And thanks to you for your recipe and I will be making these again!

Does the frosting set up well? I would love to make these to send to my dad for his birthday since he is a huge fan of German Chocolate cake, but I need to be able to ship them…. Which means they would have to be stacked on top of each other. Would it work with these cookies?

Jenelle – it sets up nicely. You could mail them for sure. Let them sit out for a bit to let the frosting harden but you could do this and you could even slide pieces of parchment paper in between. Where are you sending them?

My mom loved these German chocolate cookies were a hit. I used splenda brown sugar and added chopped brownie pieces to the recipe, so that it resembled the ice cream we ate as kids. The whole batch was gone in seconds!!! Definitely a keeper with my bunch. thanks for posting a great recipe

Hi Sandra I’m Marita, from Peru, your cookies looks delicious, I hope make it as soon as posible, but I have a question: how many grams of butter in a stick are? I’ll be waiting for your answer, thank you so much!

I made these for my fiancé’s birthday party last night and they were a huge hit! We passed them around to others in the bar and some people took a couple home to have with a glass of milk. 😉 I doubled the cookie recipe and made 1 1/2 times the frosting and it was the perfect amount – made about 60 cookies. I used almond bark for the drizzle. This is going in our family recipe book for sure! 😉

Hi, just wondering if I did something wrong here.. After adding all the frosting ingredients together in my pan and stirring and applying heat, it seemed as if the egg whites didn’t quite mix. I wasn’t worried about it until they started turning white and then they definitely weren’t mixing well. I strained the pieces out and took away from heat, but it doesn’t seem to be thickening quite as much as I would expect it to. Do you think refrigerating would help ?

It does harden, but you will be able to stack them once they sit for a while. I would stack them with wax paper. You can also freeze them, they do amazing. Just defrost them by putting them in the fridge for a few hours. Oh, so good. San

I just made this with four bean flour, you can find the recipe on-line. They are amazing! I chose this flour mix as it is used cup for cup like regular wheat flour. I did add 1 tsp. of Xanthum Gum to hold the flours together. AMAZING recipe! I can’t wait to see my daughter’s face when she stops to pick some items up to return to college! YUM!! This may be the best cookie recipe that I have ever made and I have been cooking GF for my daughter for 20 years!

You can use stevia as a substitute for the sugar and the box or pkg will tell you exactly how much to use for the amount of sugar. There is also Ting that is half sugar and half stevia, have used both for cakes and cookies and they work well and are plenty sweet. I personally don’t like the other alternative sugars because they taste so chemical when cooked with and have so many side effects. Have used stevia for over 2 yrs and love it. Some brands are sweeter though and the cheaper store brands are just as good as the high priced name brands. I use 1 to 2 pkg in 30 oz of tea. Hope this helps, I am diabetic and a nurse.

we made these cookies and they are easy to make and very delicious- I have a family of german chocolate lovers and they are a hit! thank you for sharing this recipe we will make them again! happy holidays

I would like to make these for my husband’s birthday. We are going to be stuck in a hotel that day so I’ll have to make them ahead of time. At what point should I freeze them? Just the cookie base or will they freeze and thaw OK completely assembled? Thanks for this recipe; I can’t wait!

I made the cookies exactly like the recipe says. However my cookies are rock hard. I made them using the spoon drop. I used a teaspoon. They weren’t overly filled and i’m not sure what i did wrong. Might have to throw them away and start again. Maybe cook them less. I cooked them for 10 min. Oh well just thought i would share.

So I tried making these cookies tonight for a mother’s day party I’m attending tomorrow, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I followed these directions to a T, which is usually not my style, and the cookies were the challenging part. My cookies didn’t flatten when I baked them, instead they stayed hard, little ball things. Luckily I was able to smush them down about halfway through baking. This recipe is flawed..

Wow!!ans I thought that the German Chocolate cheesecake recipe I have was good! These cookies are amazing! Only downside is that I’m not sure how many will make it to the family reunion this weekend. ☺️ Thank you so much for sharing!!

Help please, I cooked the icing the amount of time required. It had begun to thicken, then added the pecans and coconut. Set of stove and used mixer, but still too thin to use on cookies. How do I get it thicker or thick enough now?

Trying the recipe tomorrow. Looks great. One question: Ingredients for the cookies asks for 2 sticks of butter. For the frosting it asks for 1/2 cup of butter. Used to be a stick was a cup. Now when you buy the butter the sticks are 1/2 cup. Does the cookie recipe require 2 cups butter or 2 sticks (1 cup)?

Hi! I’m making these for a picnic tomorrow afternoon. Should I refrigerate them for tomorrow or will that harden the cookie? Is it better to leave them on the counter in an air tight container? So excited thank you!!!

I would like to make these for my husband’s birthday. We are going to be stuck in a hotel that day so I’ll have to make them ahead of time. At what point should I freeze them? Just the cookie base or will they freeze and thaw OK completely assembled? Thanks for this recipe; I can’t wait!

Looks like a good recipe but could you ease up on the video ads? They were screaming through my speakers so loud and I can’t find a way to turn off the ads so I had to mute my speakers! So annoying and makes me not want to look at the rest of your site! 🙁

Had to scroll down a country mile to reply, so I know these cookies are going to be great, just so you know, you have made one 6’2″tall biker very happy. Yes Guys bake too. Finally I’ll have something between my teeth (besides bugs) to smile about when Im out riding, the only bad thing is.. Ill have to stash a bunch for the brothers in my saddel bags.
Thanks Sandra.. your aces
Hunter C.

Sorry, but these aren’t German Chocolate Cake Cookies – they are chocolate cookies with the frosting from a German Chocolate Cake. German chocolate cake gets its name from an ingredient it uses: German’s Sweet Chocolate. This chocolate was originated by the Baker’s Chocolate Company (now a subsidiary of Kraft Foods) in the mid 1850s and was named after it’s creator, Sam German. The story of the chocolate says that a misprint in a newspaper that included the recipe for the first German Chocolate Cake simply left out the “s” on the name, and this is why the chocolate is often known simply as “German.” The chocolate is similar to a semisweet chocolate, but has a higher sugar content to it. This means that recipes that use it tend to be a little bit sweeter than ones that don’t.

Is it possible to use canned German Chocolate frosting that is in a can?. I don’t have all the ingredients on
hand and the Pecans here cost around $8.00 for 4 oz. I wasn’t sure if it would be too runny. I have tried
it before and good substitute has coconut, nuts etc. I want to make these for the Senior Pot Luck Dinner.
Thank You, Bea

These do look amazing, BUT if the recipe only makes 24 cookies, that means each one has 2 tablespoons of sugar. Yikes! Just wondering if there are any other options which do NOT include artificial sweeteners?

Made these today for Thanksgiving dessert, and they were great! My cookies did not turn out flat at all, but I used my spatula to flatten them just a bit for the frosting. They were perfect coming out of the oven anyway. Definitely will be making again!

well, I cannot figure out what I could have done wrong…….they puffed up beautifully in the oven, and then flattened out completely, becoming hard as rocks! I very carefully followed the recipe and checked it again. With all the reviews from people who have not tried them yet, I am wondering if anyone else has this result….I do see that one person has. I was looking for a cookie just as these seemed to be. Oh, well….

I am definitely going to make these cookies! My daughter loves German Chocolate cake, donuts, and I’m sure she will love these too. I will need to ship them so I may make them into a sandwich style cookie so the topping doesn’t go all over the place. Thanks for the great recipe.

I am excited to try these as I absolutely LOVE German Chocolate Cake. I am curious as to how well these will taste with chocolate as the base instead of German Chocolate. I am a stickler on this when it comes to my German Chocolate Cake. A chocolate cake with German Choc. Icing does not taste the same as German Chocolate being used. Either way I’m sure these are delicious cookies & I will update after I try.

I was so excited to try this recipe but when I did the cookies came out so thin that they broke when I tried taking them of the paper and the ones I did take off are so fragil to hold that they crumble. I don’t know what I did wrong . Help please.

Made these very yummy cookies. Chilled the frosting to make it thicker. Turned out great. Love the chocolate cookie. Very moist and chewy. Thinking about just using the cookie recipe to make whoopie pies or sandwich cookies. Thank you for posting a delicious recipe.

I baked your German chocolate cake cookies but I did little mistake, good mistake 😉 Instead of evaporated milk I used condensed milk I did not added extra sugar and I used unsweetened coconut flakes. I also use chocolate cake from the box to makes cookies and now I am doing again and I baked Ghirardelli chocolate cookies from the box.
Cookies are very delicious, thanks for the recipe 🙂

I followed recipe exactly. After stirring the icing for probably 20 min it barely got thick. I thought at some point it would, but needless to say after wasting my money and entire evening I’m throwing cookies in the pail. Super disappointed with the directions or perhaps inaccurate measurements. 11 minutes 30 seconds versus 20 minutes+ = I wish I chose someone else’s recipe. Money not well spent & final product in the pail. 🙁 #sadness

Sorry this did not work out for you. As you can see from the comments many including myself have has success. I would encourage to try this again, if you have any questions or issues feel free to email me. San

The cookies are moist and delicious. My husband usually doesn’t eat frostings with coconut and nuts but he loved these cookies. I am making another batch to share with friends. Thanks for the great recipe!!!!!!!!

I can’t wait to try this recipe! I had been looking for a good scratch recipe for these – I have been making mine with a German Chocolate cake mix and canned coconut peacan frosting, but would love to try from scratch! Mine are a box of cake mix with 1/4 cup oil and 2 eggs. Once mixed together, roll into about 40 balls (about an inch) and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. When they come out of the oven, flatten with spatula and let cool. Frost the bottom of a cookie and sandwich together with another. Makes 20 sandwich cookies that won’t stick to a ziplock bag in a lunchbox! They are soft and chewy.

I just want to correct your recipe. German chocolate cake calls for German”s baking chocolate in the baking aisle. The coconut frosting does not make this “German”. It’s actually a guy’s last name, like Hershey chocolate, not german from Germany. German’s baking chocolate is actually a lighter chocolate than most in the baking aisle

These cookies are the absolute best cookie anyone will ever eat or make. They are thin, chocolately and chewy. The frosting is to die for!! I made these for my family and everyone devoured them immediately! Everyone should try these, but be careful, you WILL fall in love.

Feels like a silly question but we’re headed up to Steamboat this weekend and I want to make these but are they messy to store? Or does the frosting harden enough to stack in a tupperware carefully? Thx!

I just found your recipe about 6 months ago and have made a few times. They are amazing! I have to stop myself from eating them all. I finally took them to work and everyone loved them. Thank you for sharing.

These look amazing. I love German Chocolate cake, so I’m sure we’d like these. That’s why I probably won’t make them since they look like they will sabotage our efforts to lose weight with all that butter and sugar. No Christmas baking for us this year. Maybe next year.

No sorry you need to use evaporated milk but here is an idea: If you don’t have any, make your own: To produce 1 cup of evaporated milk, simmer 2 1/4 cups of regular milk down until it becomes 1 cup. In many recipes, evaporated milk may also be replaced with a combination of whole milk and half-and-half.

Unless the recipe calls for salted butter, I always use unsalted when baking. In fact, that’s what I did BEFORE reading down into the comments and finding your “salted” reply to someone else. I haven’t frosted them yet. Would the unsalted butter version of the cookie benefit from adding salt to the frosting, or should I just forget about it and go with what I have?

Also, the prep time and baking time are both wildly optimistic. I have no elves or staff to prepare and measure out all the ingredients. That alone took far longer than your prep time indicates. To make matters worse, I’m working in an under-supplied kitchen with a small hand mixer from the late 1970s and only two cookie sheets — one big and one small. There’s one oven, and it works best to only use the middle rack, which only fits one cookie sheet at a time. Another thing I could not do is get 12 cookies on at the same time. The cookies are too big for that. I did 9 on the big sheet and 6 on the smaller one.. Disclosure: I used 50% more ingredients to make 4.5 dozen cookies. Soooo, prep time was almost two hours and baking time was another two hours. As a mentioned, I haven’t made the frosting yet, so that will add what ~ another hour+ to make and apply to 54 cookies?? I’ve noticed this under-reporting of the time it takes the average person (without elves) to make a recipe is common online and in print. Maybe when testing a recipe, find a friend who isn’t anywhere near professional, and time that person trying to make it and also note what supplies they use before posting times. Of course, it’s always possible if the times were more accurate, most people would forget it and buy cookies from a bakery. Thanks.

I hope they turned out alright in the end! I would suggest just skipping the salt at that point; if you added a pinch of salt as the recipe suggests they should be okay. I updated the recipe to specify salted butter for anyone in the future.

I’m sorry it took so long for you, with the right tools it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours if you are doubling the recipe. If you make the frosting while the first batch of cookies bake it will save you a lot of time. The frosting will keep while the cookies cool, and you can start frosting them as the remaining batches bake. This is how most recipes prep times are counted as it’s the most efficient way when baking. Hopefully next time it won’t take quite as long!

German Chocolate anything is my favorite! I used to go to a bakery called Schmidt”s Pastry Cottage that had a cookie just like this, that I was completely addicted to… so when I saw this recipe and had some canned german chocolate frosting leftover from who knows when I thought, “I need to try these”! They were so easy, and my parents, husband and children are having trouble with self control on these! They are delicious! We also tried “Best Ever German Chocolate Cake” recipe and we haven’t eaten it yet, but I sampled that frosting and it is OUTSTANDING! I am so excited! Thank you “dashofinsanity”!

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